Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Last year, the Rye² was my favorite Monster beer from Terrapin. That was at the Taco Mac pint glass poured with no head, and served too cold. Now that I can get this in bottles, it was time to give the beer the proper serving treatment of a Tulip glass at cellar temperature.

The beer came out cloudy peach in color, with a small head that was beige. The smell was very citric hops, with a tinge of spice. From the first sip, the hops were clearly in command here, just as they are in the little brother Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. There was also a lot of sweet malt that was just short of syrupy. The thick body provided to be a good hop delivery vehicle, although it was not as tongue coating as it could have been. This was certainly more in the mould of a classic DIPA when compared to the Big Hoppy Monster. The sweet, hoppy, and spicy, flavors never quite dominated as they do in some of the big West Coasters. Very easy to drink despite the 8.5% ABV.

Purchased on the day of the release 13 April 06. The best by date says 26 September 06, but I doubt itll be as good in five months as it is fresh. (1,112 characters)

Ive finally was able to try this wonderful beer. My local Taco Mac on Ptree Industrial had no clue about this beer, so I went to the Taco Mac on Holcomb Bridge. My wife and I have been waiting for this beer for quite some time. Our every day beer is Terrapin Rye so one can imagine our enthusiasm for a double version.
CAMRA would be proud of the full pour we got. To be honest I didnt expect this beer to be as dark as it was. However, the hops and caramel malt is incredibly strong, with a decent amount of carbonation. The beer has a great balance between the malt, rye, and hops. In addition, I never wouldve known this beer clocks in at almost 9% ABV. Not a hint of an alcohol taste. As the beer warmed the malt flavor increased, as did the rye.
Overall, this is one of the best high gravity beers Ive had. Very different than any other double IPA. (865 characters)

Taste goes right along with the aroma... This is sweet, hoppy, and spicy all at the same time... Its incredible how good this brew tastes... Its unlike anything else that I've ever tasted... And I'm loving it..

Absolutely a masterpiece from the boys at Terrapin here... I have 3 more left and I'm headed back for number 2 now... Highly, highly recommended!! (691 characters)

Two fingers of light foamy tan head is generated from a vigorous pour. Scattered lace is left as it fades. Body is a rich tone of amber. Nose is an attractive mellow mix of malty sweetness and rich soft hops. With the first sip you get very silky balance from the hops and the malt, with even sweetness. The rye feel here is very warm and woodsy, almost spicey but soft and enjoyable. I cant get over how well this beer is balanced and how drinkable it is. At 8.5% it is scary well hidden. Only a slight warming in the belly. Mouthfeel is deleciously thick. May be my new favorite Imperial pale ale. The hops are here just well mingled with the rest of the brew, which I like very well. (686 characters)

Appearance - pours very smoothly into the Sam Adams glass. Too smoothly, so I increased the distance of the pour. Bad idea. The head was delayed in setting up and now it's a runaway. I take in a full mouth of foam and just a tad ran over. Mmm, good, but more on that later. This settles in as a cool looking orange golden brew. The last ounce poured in a bit of fine sediment but it is not dispersing quickly at all, it just hangs in mid-brew. The massive head falls back to a clumpy cover, leaving a blasted battlefield full of broken lace - something happened here, lol.

Aroma - smells heavy and sweet with syrupy citrus.

Taste - heavy malts start pretty sweetly, the sugar and alcohol mixing to form a fine warm burn. The hops have lost their crisp bite I imagine, but they are doing well despite. Primary citrus flavors are still there but a little shallow. The swallow ushers in a slow dry bitterness that gains volume slowly but surely. The finish has a breath of citrus but a warm hoppy bite with lingering alcohol.

Mouthfeel - heavy, viscous, oily, mmm. Carbonation is a bit understated, which is no surprise given what I did to the beer on the pour.

Drinkability - potent, yes. Delicious, yes yes. If the dang ingredient shortages don't make this $20 a sixer, I'll grab more than one bottle. (1,328 characters)

Pours a clear copper color with deep amber hues. tan head fades relatively quickly, the head had an pinkish tint. Fine carbonation can be seen rising from this wonderful plastic cup provided by the Holiday Inn.

Rye and hops blend wonderfully and integrate with malt sweetnes. Spicey and earthy aroma with citrus underneath. Smells a little like whiskey with the rya and all it's noa big surprise, not boozey but reminisint of it.

The huge hops fuse with the rye to make this beer spicy and almost earthy. Good malt structure for the hops to explode off, but it is not sweet. Some citrus and hints of other fruits.

Good mouthfeel and carbonation. Beer is dry, but full.

Very drinkable beer, I could drink this on a hot summer day or sip it on a cool spring evening.

I really like this beer, It is going to be tough to bring the rest of these home to share with the other BAs I got them for. (926 characters)

A: This beer is golden amber with highlights of red, but very cloudy. It has little to no head (off-white) that is fully diminishing.

S: You immediately smell malty sweetness in this beer. Grapefruit, citrus, pine, and floral hints are clearly there. Not a strong bouquet, but very pleasurable.

T: Wow, very good. Well pronouced caramel flavors in the front of the mouth followed by mild malty flavors with a very quick finish of citrus hops. Not much bitterness if at all, but a very sweet beer. However, no flavors out does others making this a very well-balanced beer.

M: A very light beer. Smooth, full bodied, little/medium carbonation.

D: I can definately throw a few of these back during the summer. Gotta watch out for the ABV though. Great to convert someone to craft beer and we did it to our friend eith this one. (829 characters)

Why I haven't tried this in a few years I have no clue. Worlds better than I remember, maybe I just didn't know what I was getting myself into then. Pours a beautiful amber with reddish hues, a medium off-white head comes up and falls to a ring. Not much lacing but it's pretty potent. Smell is fairly muted at first but grows deeper and deeper as it warms. Fresh, green citrusy hops with a spicy undertone. Light sweet malt, some bread, and a hint of alcohol. Taste is killer. I suppose the last time I had this was soon after the cap was popped in NC? I wasn't used to the big boys and this one must have just shocked me. Well damn, it's so good now. Excellent hoppy flavors meshing perfectly with malt. Definitely more hoppy than anything and the malt doesn't become thick and take away from the hop character. Quite bitter at first with sweetness in the middle and a drying finish. Orange, tangerine, pineapple, a little grapefruit. A touch of caramel and brown sugar and a wonderful bready flavor. Holy mackarel, is this my new favorite from Terrapin? Wonderfully done and a great little gem if I do say so myself. I'm glad this is local because I sent the other bottles I had out in trades and such. I really wish I had another to follow this one but unfortunately that's not the case. All I can say is I look forward to the next Side Project, anything new from Terrapin is welcomed by me...one of my favorite breweries and they just keep growing on me. (1,459 characters)

Pours an orangeish amber with a nice, thick-looking orange sherbet colored head. A never-ending stream of bubbles rushes from the bottom of my tulip glass. A thick wall of lace coats the side of the glass, and a good sized cap of head remains for quite some time. This beer truly earned its 5 here.

The nose is beautiful, too. Lots of rye, pine sap, white grapefruit, cannabis. All of the above are also present in the taste with nice delicious contributions of amazingly sweet caramel/toffee notes which complement the bitterness dexterously. Tropical fruits also play in the background: specifically, mango and pineapple. While the flavor from the rye is huge (and mouth-wateringly scrumptious) there is no missing the hops. Bitter pine sap is probably the most prominent flavor. However, the sweet flavors are always present at the same time as the bitterness. This beer is extremely well-made and very complex.

It feels smooth and the body is medium-light. Spicy rye almost burns the tongue (in a most delightful way) if you allow it to linger there too long. I could have had a few more of these. No sign of the 8.5% ABV on the palate.

I love this brewery! I am not had a bad (or even mediocre) beer from them yet. If I lived in Athens, I would be at the brewery every chance I got. I actually toured it while I was in Georgia visiting my family over Christmas. It was amazing (especially the sampies)! Definitely recommended. John and Spike are great guys and very talented brewers. (1,492 characters)

Excellent! I had this "over" Crystal hops, so that affected the taste, but I feel that I can give a fair judgment to this beer. Its beautiful dark amber-brown is very tempting, and the aroma is hoppy but not "piney." Taste is delightfully hoppy with minimal bitterness. Very pleasant to drink, this is a beer one should sip and savor. (334 characters)

A: A slightly hazy orange-amber with an impressively large, thick, and stick head that retains very well and leaves some intense lacing. The only holes appear in some small areas where bubbles once clung to the side of the glass.

T&M: Well, it tastes like a double-dose of Rye Pale Ale, but with more sweetness and less of the herbal astringency of its little brother. Sweet grapefruits with a slight spice edge from the rye is the best way to describe the flavor. The mouthfeel is incredible, however. A full, creamy body with a flavorful finish and some sticky coating. Top notch mouthfeel.

D: For a DIPA/Imperial American PA, it's quite drinkable. The flavor is bold, balanced, and smooth. 8.5 hurts just a tad, but it still goes down easy. The only thing preventing a 5 is the fuller body. (972 characters)

A- Thin tan head on a really clear amber body with hues of orange.
S- Decent amount of hops. Orange rind comes through, pretty malty too. Sweet caramel malts. Rye does come through a bit.
T- Follows the aroma. Tastes a lot like a barley wine just with some rye into it. Big bitterness on tongue. Orange rind comes through quite big too. Grass hops are also thrown in there.
M- Full body with low/medium carbonation.
D- It is tasty. I would buy this again. (459 characters)

thanks goes to CaptainCougar and the Ga crew for bring this to Mich for me. poured a orange amber with some floaties and with a small off white head,that left some nice lacing. aroma hops, hops, hops, and some more hops, nice pine ,alcohol, some malts did Imention hops?. flavor, what else but hops, a sweet grapefruit, . alcohol, honey at the finish. I have got to say this is one of the hoppiest beers I have had.wow .did i say this has some hops in it? good and I mean good hoppy beer. I would like to get more of this. (522 characters)

One note is that this beer is classified by Terrapin as an Imperial Pale Ale.

This beer pours a hazy reddish-orange with a frothy, slightly off white head that holds for a while but diminishes to a thin film that lasts throughout the beer leaving lace the whole way down the glass. The smell is pretty much all hops but there is the lingering aroma of some pale malts. The taste behaves in much the same way. This could almost be classified as an DIPA. The mouthfeel is very good for its style, thick and smoothly carbonated. Overall anohter great one in Terrapin's Monster Beer tour. (642 characters)

Radiant ripe apricot that became significantly more cloudy as all but the final ounce entered the glass on the initial pour. The crown is a thing of beauty. It's lightly lemon and orange-tinted alabaster in color, thick and buttery in texture and hop resiny enough to throw up a pretty fair display of lace (the generous ABV is probably dissolving the glass coverage to some extent). The beer looks like it tastes incredible. That's all I ask.

If I loved Rye PA's nose, why wouldn't I love a beer that shares the same recipe, except doubled? I do love it, I do! It may not be quite as hop juicy as its little brother, but it's equally appealing in a spicy-sweet, citric fruity kind of way. I admit that I'm biased toward American hops, but Amarillo and Cascade make this beer what it is. What it is... is great.

Unfortunately, Rye Squared isn't the explosive hop bomb that I had hoped it would be. It's still damn good beer though. I had concerns when I read that both malt and hops would be doubled to get from 'Rye1' to 'Rye2'. True hopheads (and I have every reason to think that Spike and John fit that description given the amazing beer that they design and will some day brew) would have cheated downward on the malt and upward on the hops.

The day is saved, however, by the use of malted rye; the other key to the deliciousness of both of these beers. Just as in good bourbon, the spiciness of that particular grain adds something different, something intriguing, something special to the 'same old, same old' mold that everyone else uses. The rock solid malt backbone is sweet and spicy and brown sugary and is very nearly baby barleywine-like.

In fact, this beer is an American Barleywine at least as much as it's an American Strong Ale, a DIPA or an 'Imperial Pale Ale' (as it's designated by the brewery). The hops are so damn tasty that I want more of them. Tripling the hop load would have worked out just fine as far as I'm concerned. The caramel-covered white grapefruitiness of the Cascade comes through loud and clear while the tropical fruitiness of the Amarillo is less evident.

The 8.5% ABV is noticeable, although not bothersome. There's enough else going on that a bit of unmasked alcohol is a welcome member of the mouth party. So much for being a lace killer. A thick, crusty coat has appeared now that the bottom of the glass is drawing closer. The body/mouthfeel is as aggressive as the rest of the beer and has been perfectly calibrated to promote maximum stickage on the tongue and mucous membranes. There is no finish, there is only flavor.

Rye Squared isn't quite the beer that I expected it to be and it isn't quite the beer that it could have been with a minor tweak to the malt:hop balance. On the whole though, this is another stunning beer from what I believe to be the best little brewery in the South. The hophead's creed is that there is no beer that wouldn't benefit from more hops. Terrapin Beer Company gets it. (2,971 characters)

The beer pours a beautiful dark gold color with a thick frothy offwhite head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is great! It has a wonderful rye/bisquit scent that loads the nose of wet cardboard and crystal malts. There are some hops in there as well, but they are not as pronounced. The taste is awesome. It has a loaded up hop flavor that goes down easy and finishes warm and bitter. The rye and crystal malts add a excellent level of complexity to the taste. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a good drinking beer. It's big and bold and full of hops. Thanks to JJ for this one. (634 characters)

Poured from a bottle into a standard pint glass. You could tell how thick the beer was as it was poured. Head is white and falls away leaving some lacing on the glass. Carbonation is mild to moderate, small bubbles. Beer is brownish / orange and slightly opaque. Cloudiness in a double IPA is common these days, it tends to clear up as the beer warms. Indicative of chill haze.

Aroma is very strong, classic characters for an Imperial IPA are present as well as the rye, it really comes through in the aroma. It is a little intimidating.

Full bodied, nicely balanced. The sourness from the rye comes at the end, there is plenty of hop bitterness in the back of the mouth. This beer is amazingly smooth. No warmth despite the high alcohol. An amazing example. This beer hits all the centers and sensations on the palate. Sweetness up front and bitterness in the back, mid palate is filled with different flavors. Completely coats the tongue with rye beer goodness. Overall an amazing beer. (991 characters)

Poured from growler into my trusty irish pub pint glass,slightly hazed orange ruby hue with a nice head that had just a dash of tan to it and excellant lacing.Very warming maltiness rye aromas seem dominate.Citrusy hops too, the rye sourness is very enjoyable with the sweet bready malt.If these folks were swinging for the fences, I think that they knocked it out of the park.Sweet bready malt that supports the nice burn from the rye, I love rye beer.The rye and alcohol burn play very well here, with the hops playing a nice role with the two.Very enjoyable big beer, oily and dry finish go well with smooth malt rye booze combo.Drinkability is the only part I detract from this magical elixer. As we approuch the 10% abv sadly I am limited to 1 or 2 so, there it is. (774 characters)

GABF 2005. Gold color. Unbelievably vibrant hop aroma, especially consider the conditions, glass and sample size. Big, smack you across the face grapefruit and lemon in the nose. Massive, thick and full texture, which seemed to accentuate all the flavors. Rich hop balance, sticky and massive, almost west coastish. Nice caramel malt flavor to balance. Great beer. (364 characters)

Pours a hazy orangish, great big head, not much lacing though.Nose isn't that strong, i get some grapefruit, caramel, and that vague spiceness i alwasy smell in any beer brewed with rye ( that may be me imagining things as i think this beer only has like 10% rye malt in it)Taste is so much better than the nose, nice hit of citrusy hops, nice malt backbone with flavors of caramel and maybe some notes of good honey. Creamy mouthfeel, for dipa, i think it has the smoothest mouthfeel i have had to date. Excellent beer, if you like balanced borderline american barleywine type Dipas try this. (597 characters)